You're Entitled
by CharlieMichelle
Summary: "You're entitled to be afraid sometimes." Clint said as he approached Natasha. "No, no I'm not." Natasha said as she met his eyes.


**A/N: Not nearly as good as some of my other stuff, but it was an idea I couldn't get out of my head. Obviously Natasha would always be uncomfortable with Hulk after the whole hellicarrier thing, at least that's the logical reaction I'd think. So here you go! Enjoy.**

**Dislcaimer: Still don't own Avengers.  
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A month after the Manhattan destruction incident the Avengers (with the exception of Thor) resided in the newly formed Stark tower. Each of them getting their own level set up personalized and completely functional, everyone lived in harmony with each other. They coexisted and eventually became friends, very good friends as Tony would tell Pepper after officially moving her in.

Even the cold and silent Natasha Romanoff warmed up to the idea of not being completely alone, in fact recently she's marveled in it. Natasha formed a very close relationship with Steve and Bruce, although never getting within close physical range of Bruce (he understood of course) and as far as Tony went she tolerated him for her newly found friend Pepper.

Clint fit in well with he group participating in 'Men Night' once a week with the guys while Pepper and Natasha had 'Girls Night' where they bar hopped and made up extravagant stories about fake adventures and careers, or sexual orientations. Yes the Avengers had made their current living conditions peaceful and mutual having more laughs then fights but even with the fights laughter following.

There was one time however that didn't sit well with the group, an argument ensued between Clint and Natasha over something silly and unimportant, very rarely happening between the best friends (since they no longer work directly for SHIELD they didn't have to determine their friendship by mission status).

"I told you to mind your own damn business Barton!" Natasha said hotly as she stormed up to him with her hands on her hips and glared a bloody furious glare at him.

"I did mind my own business Romanoff, but you lied to me!" He replied just as hotly standing his ground as soon as he watched her enter the room. He knew he crossed some unseen but always there line of what happened on the hellicarrier, she never felt the need to tell him. He had enough on his mind, she said, it didn't really matter, she said, of course he did and it ALWAYS mattered with her.

"So you cornered Banner to get him to talk?" She shook her head and started to walk passed him to Bruce who was sitting at the bar trying to burry his face in his cereal. "Why the hell did you tell him?"

"I… you know Tash I got a lot of research a-"

It was a known fact that when Natasha Romanoff cut you off she was pissed; "don't even pull that shit with me Doctor. Why would you tell him? I specifically told you not to!"

"I still fail to see as to why I wasn't allowed to know." Clint said dangerously low as he stalked over and trapped Banner in on the other side, he decided against pointing out that Natasha froze for a second and tensed up before easing her body to give him room. "See, right there, that's what I was talking about!"

"I'm well aware Clint, but as I've said Natasha has her right to her reasons." Bruce said glaring at the archer who was glaring at the Russian. "You two clearly have to work this out I'm just going to go…" He would have gotten away if it weren't for Clint blocking him in.

"Stay."

"If he wants to leave let him leave Barton." Natasha hissed as she took another instinctive step backwards.

"I want him to stay." Clint said glaring at Natasha's slowly retreating form she'd bolt if he didn't block her in.

"It's ok really Clint you and Natasha work this out I'm really not needed here." He could tell he was concerning Natasha he also knew that it wasn't him as a person but it was the memory of Hulk making her wary. He was honestly ok with it, he understood, and he didn't want Natasha forced into anything. She had no problem sitting in his lab with him for hours discussing anatomy and physiology. She would be the one to retrieve him when he was huddled in his lab for hours without eating or drinking, or even breathing fresh oxygen, for hours.

"I just don't understand why I had to find out from Bruce here on what happened." Clint bantered with his hand in the air shaking as if he was in some Shakespearean performance.

"Because you weren't supposed to know," Natasha started as she avoided his eyes and looked at Bruce, "what happened when you weren't yourself isn't what you need to focus on." It was the softest her voice had been since the entire outbreak.

"I focused on myself Nat," he made an approach towards her making confirmation eye contact with Bruce, he would be able to tell if Natasha was about to bolt and stop her before Clint could, "but I can't do anything more with it. I accepted what I did was not my own doing, I accepted that every blow I landed on you was not a choice I wanted to make, and I accepted that despite the horrible monstrous things I had done the fact that I helped defeat the ass hole who did it to me in the first place made up for it."

"So why are you playing your cards with me?" She always used poker as a type of metaphor when she was upset or just really tired. It always made things more interesting considering Clint knew nothing about poker.

"You're my best friend Nat, knowing that you're not ok? It's not helping the 'healing' process as Fury put it." She wouldn't bolt Bruce knew it as he backed out of the room silently just as Clint closed in so he was an arms length away from her. "Meet me halfway here."

"Why? You already asked Bruce about everything." She stood her ground as she always did when they argued only this time he couldn't even look in her in the eye because her guard was up so high.

He sighed heavily before pulling out the heavy shit; he hated pulling the heavy shit. "I saw you the other night… I knew you haven't been sleeping well so I went down to your level to keep you company. You were staring off into space on the sofa."

"That means nothing. I sit on the sofa a lot." She crossed her arms and challenged him, he fucking hated when she challenged him.

"Natasha, I know you were scared but you aren't there anymore." He whispered which he guessed was good because her composure softened. "Look at me Tash."

"I was pinned under a pipe." She said it softly and he wasn't sure if he heard her correctly, "The explosion you set off in engine three knocked Bruce and I down a level, my leg was pinned under the pipe and I promised Bruce we'd be fine but it didn't work."

"Keep going." He ordered as he moved closer and made her sit down it appeared like he was going to scold her but he knew that if he stood and she sat she'd feel like she's not in control, he needed that feeling in her to get anywhere with this.

"At first when Hulk came out I was stunned but I couldn't bring myself to pull free; this was it. I was finally getting what life had always meant for me to get." She looked at Clint her eyes dry and cold. "I remembered though that I wasn't the same person I used to be, even if Loki tried making me that person, I wasn't so I fought to pull free. When I did I ran.

"I ran and hid but when he snuck up behind me I didn't waste bullets on him, it wouldn't work. So I steamed him to give me time to get away, it didn't work. I braced myself as best I could but when he flung me into that fixture. He was about to finish it, Hulk not Bruce but part of me knew that Bruce would blame himself, his arm was lifted and swinging down and in that moment I realized how much damaged I had actually done when I was Black Widow the assassin that didn't think twice. I killed without blinking and I realized that so could Hulk, I deserved it Clint, but Thor prevented it."

"You don't deserve shit Natasha!" Clint said angrily towards her sitting form. Her legs crossed her arms resting on the table her eyes set forward. "Look at me right now."

She did glance, but that wasn't going to cut it for him not right now so he forced her eyes on him, "you aren't the bad guy you make yourself out to be and you fucking know it."

"Oh like you can talk!" She retorted with anger ripping her face away from his hand, it left a tingly feeling in her chin. "You've been beating yourself up over Loki for the last four weeks! You've been grumbling about turning a new leaf but you know that you don't have to, two can play this hand Clint."

He was losing his patience with her, he rarely did that; "you joined the good guys Natasha! You knew what you were doing and wanted to fix it, you had the control to make that decision. Stop living in the past. Suck it the fuck up!"

"I have sucked it up!" She was standing again and he was getting no where with this. "It made me think, Loki made me think, having to fight you made me think, having Hulk practically break my spine… made me think."

"Well stop thinking alone." He grumbled before looking at her; "two brains are better then one."

"Why do you think I hang out with Bruce?" Clint would have laughed if she wasn't being serious.

"I thought you were hanging around Bruce because you developed female feelings for him." He was seriously irked at that thought but soon realized it was a different reason altogether. "I know now that you didn't spend time with him for that reason."

"Then what was the reason?" She asked with a cool delicate voice.

"You feel bad. You feel like you make him feel horrible for not controlling it." She rolled her eyes and he would have continued on if he didn't hear the heels clicking into the hall.

"Is this a bad time to ask for Natasha's company?" Pepper asked lightly as she took note of their stance.

Clint was glowering over Natasha he looked ready to pounce meanwhile Natasha looked ready to land a sucker punch to the gut. "Not at all Pepper." Natasha said sweetly as she started walking away to have Clint grab her arm.

"She's busy right now."

"I just said I wasn't," She argued back turning her gaze onto Pepper; "he's confused."

"No I'm not done yet." Clint said holding onto her arm, "Pepper she'll find you in no more then ten minutes."

"That's fine." Pepper said as she backed away, "take all the time you need I'll be in my office." When Pepper moved out of the room Clint looked back at Natasha.

"That was rude." She said as she glanced up at him, her guard was down and he was relieved to see that she dropped it for him again.

"Yeah well I'm not done with you yet." He let go of her arm once she shrugged. "Bruce told me… I didn't ask."

"That's bull shit Clint, I walked in while you were asking." Natasha said as she started to walk around but today Clint was feeling grabby as he grabbed her arm and turned her around again.

"You're wrong, you caught the part after he already started telling me, I was asking for more detail." His eyes followed her body language. She wasn't stiff or tense she was just there, just Natasha again. "I don't like hearing it."

She turned to him with a questioning eye; "I don't like hearing you say things about you deserving death. It's not right, you're not right."

She simply shrugged; "not to you, but to me it makes more sense. Karma will get me Clint." She wasn't trying patronize him or placate him she was just being honest with the man she's been honest with so many other times.

"We're partners Nat." He said it bluntly in the 'I care you care' deal. "I had no idea how close you actually were to losing it. I couldn't stand seeing you hovered on your sofa with demons in your eyes."

"I've killed fathers, brothers, sons, and friends." She said it simply and looked away. "Those demons shouldn't leave."

He wanted to shake her, really shake her until her teeth chattered against themselves. He wanted to scream at her, throw her into an ice cold river to wake her up or in the worst event make her hug Hulk. Bruce learned to control him; he brings Hulk out during training but never with Natasha around. "Natasha just listen to me."

She looks at him and ushers him to hurry up so she can meet Pepper. "You're the one who brought me back, you're the one that believed in me you didn't doubt me like the rest of the team did in Manhattan. You're my best friend, all I'm asking is that you confide in me here. What can I do to help you?"

She shrugged, "I can't get help Clint."

It was the final straw for him. Walking over her grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed his mouth onto hers. His hands framed her face as if they were always supposed to be there. He wasn't even sure what he was doing; all he knew is that in that moment when she said she couldn't get help he wasn't holding anything back.

Did he love her? Perhaps, but he was realistic not a hopeless romantic. He knew that this kiss was more then likely a one time deal, but it was a one time deal he'd make. He wasn't even sure why she was kissing him back, that wasn't like her. She should have stabbed him.

When they broke apart he kissed her forehead lightly her hands gripping his wrists for dear life; "I was scared Clint…" That was what he wanted. He wanted to be honest, if it took one kiss to get that he'd do it again and again.

"You have that right sometimes."

"Not me, not Natasha Romanoff, not the Black Widow, but I was. I was scared that I'd die before I could get to you, I was scared because you weren't there." She opened her eyes. "I don't like scared."

He nodded before whispering to her; "everyone gets scared Nat". He hugged her as a friend would her hands breaking free of their grip to wrap around him as his arms held her to his body. "It doesn't hurt if you tell someone."

She nodded against him. "I wasn't sleeping that night not because of Bruce but because of the reality of it all." Her voice was muffled against his shirt, "I haven't been on a team ever. I worked solo but the reality that these guys and Pepper care for me? It kept me up because I had imagined the ways someone can use you all against me."

"No one will," He said with conviction, "we'd never let someone do that Tash." She nodded knowing he was right. He pressed a light kiss to her hairline.

The next month when the Hulk was training with Clint and Steve Natasha joined them. She fought alongside them, she fought with them, she even made a move with Hulk (not that Clint approved of Natasha flying through the air to hit a target).

Speaking of Natasha flying through the air, that was the following week's argument. "It's great that you and Bean Stalk made up but him flinging you in the air?"

"It's perfectly safe!" Natasha argued as she began gearing up for her first mission with Banner alone. "Hulk won't hurt me."

"It's never the fling that kills you!" He states walking after her, "it's the sudden stop from a miscalculated throw that does."

She rolled her eyes, "I'm sure." She muttered before she walked passed him lightly touching his arm; "I'll be fine Clint."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered as he pressed a kiss to her lips, it wasn't long or short but it was something they did now. Quite often at that, he mused silently. "I'll see you when you get back." He said softly before kissing her cheek.

"Bye Clint." She said with a sing song voice and a light wave as he walked out of the debriefing room.

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**A/N: Alright well hope you enjoyed! Its not my best work, but it was cute enough to warrant some decent fluff. Hope you all enjoyed! **


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